Cleaning the board: Local police use property law to rid drugs, crime - MyWebTimes.com

Cleaning the board: Local police use property law to rid drugs, crime - MyWebTimes.com

It would be comforting to know that Peru follows the lead of other cities but I have not seen it locally, have you?

Naplate considers national volunteerism program - MyWebTimes.com

Naplate considers national volunteerism program - MyWebTimes.com

Alderman Perez hope you are reading this and also Steve. We have frequently discussed the need for volunteers in our city. A link is included in the story.

Streator firefighters to assume code enforcement duties - MyWebTimes.com

Streator firefighters to assume code enforcement duties - MyWebTimes.com

Interesting article especially since the City of Peru just hired a Code Officer that will be part time and seasonal.

Wonderful Old Photos

News Tribune - Sports - Columns - Missed chances to teach

News Tribune - Sports - Columns - Missed chances to teach

News Tribune - News - Local - Peru to invest in upgrades to attract employer

News Tribune - News - Local - Peru to invest in upgrades to attract employer

Please draw your own conclusions, I have and feel we are being deceived.

News Tribune - News - NCI - Princeton council bans 'designer drug' bath salts

News Tribune - News - NCI - Princeton council bans 'designer drug' bath salts

This City Council seems to have come up with a well thought through ordinance for their city. Smart move.

An Example of What a CDAP Grant Can BE

OK I sat through the supposed public information meeting tonight but it appears or so it is said that the state body in control of the block grants given to cities less than 50,000 pop. does not allow information to be given the public prior to the giving of the grant. The point of holding the meeting was ???. And we learned what????

The link I posted is how it helped a small city in Illinois get the grant to help develop 25 jobs and is similar in scope to the Peru Project.. Casey is a southern Illinois community of 2942.

I think it would have been more informative to direct us to web sites than to waste our time in a public forum with no information.

Thoughts on the Concert vs The Fireworks

There seems to be some question between the Water Street celebrations and the Big Time Rush concert.
I would like to clarify my stance in regards to the water street celebration and the difference between the recent concert.
As you recall my quote " water street is one big beer garden"
Meaning; beer tent, 5 pubs, coolers of alcohol, and open containers allowed throughout the public streets. Although our P.D. Does a great job responding to incidents It is impossible for the police to monitor the full stretch of a street that has open alcohol. This venue makes it easy for teen and binge drinking. " I do not blame the CSO or pubs for allowing this"
This is a simple fix that is our responsibility as a city to correct. I have never stated I oppose beer drinking, but it must be a controlled venue. The current venue does not allow for more family activities or an opportunity for the city to generate donations or revenue to fund the nearly 30,000.00 festivity.

I would like to see the pubs contained with a fence around their outdoor beer garden.

The beer tent moved off of water street and no open containers allowed on public streets.
This will allow room for more family events and an opportunity for the city to save the taxpayers from all, or some of the costs of this event,

Along with helping make the celebration a safer place for all.

Concert- Concert for a cause is " not a city funded event" This venue was targeted for families with many family activities which included a carnival. Yes alcohol was served Which was contained to that fenced in area. No coolers were allowed, and anyone that was in question was carded. I bar tended from open to close, we had some regular customers and at many times we stood around with no customers.

The difference between the concert and the water street festivity " was Huge"and a great success!

Please contact me anytime for questions or concerns @ 815-245-7566

Thank you! Rodney Perez

Peru's Only City Park on Route 6

Pulaski Park in the east end of town, sits right along Rte 6 between Pulaski and Prospect Sts. in Ward 1. Nothing ever takes place here, no events and I guess no reason to make it look attractive but everyone who travels along Rte 6 gets a good look at it. Very little color except at the east point.

Recently while coming home, I noticed a park bench towards the back of the park and I began to wonder why would you have a bench that is blocked by high shrubbery. I have seen people sitting there who would not want to be seen but maybe that is a good place to hide. It looks like there have been attempts to make it more attractive in previous years but this year it seems to be rather bedraggled. Of course no baseball games could be held here.

This leads me to the question of who plans our landscaping in our parks and sees that they are kept up. We do have a horticulturist who even lives in this ward. Maybe some of the plants at the green house could have been placed here instead of dying from neglect.

Thoughts From My Desk

One of my friends called me to tell me to check the N.T. on their 10,25,50 Years Ago column. So here it is from Aug. 12, 1961.....Peru's outdoor swimming pool leaked an estimated 810,000 gallons of water per year, a Chicago engineering firm reported. The pool was one of a few in the state built prior to 1930 that had not reworked its filters and piping to meet present standards.

I would check the record to see what was done about it if I thought records were even kept for those years.

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I guess that the following might be a conundrum but we know that much has been made about the beer garden and the Fourth of July and I have to admit that I have been one of those cheering for a change but now I read that beer will be present for The Big Time Rush, a concert for young people to raise money for the swimming pool to be constructed in the next millenium and BEER will be allowed. So beer is ok at the airport but not on Water Street? And the difference is???

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Until Ald. Perez went out with the group of GLOW kids from Missouri, this fire hydrant was hidden by overgrowth. If there had been a fire in the area there would have been chaos looking for it.

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I would also like to know where the money generated by the water and sewer rate increase is stashed away. If we have it why will it be necessary to borrow with a revolving line of credit of 2.8 mil. Wasn't the increase mandated in order to have money to pay for the mandated water - sewer separation?

"Closed Session" meetings are a necessary "evil"

A commentor on this blog recently asked about the frequency of closed session meetings being conducted by the Peru city coucil. I think it is a topic the public needs to understand. First of all, nobody promotes or encourages "open and honest" government more than I do. With that said, I recognize the fact that there will always be certain matters the governing body will be required to discuss in closed session for one reason or another. The best resource I have found to help the public understand the specifics of the Open Meetings Act is www.illininosattorneygeneral.gov. Click on the Legislation tab and then click Ensuring Open and Honest Government. There you can find all the info you need, including the entire staute that describes how governing bodies are required to abide by the rules. I am always curious why a "closed session" meeting shows up on the agenda and at the same time I am always disappointed knowing that certain elected officials are being entrusted with what is probably some very critical decision making going on completely out of sight and out of public scrutiny. I say that because I beleive the potential for bad decision-making from at least a few of Peru's elected officials is normally pretty high. But the likelihood of bad decisions increases greatly when elected officials know they are being made out of public view. I suspect the discussions in closed session are much more interesting and candid than open meeting discussions. The most frustrating part of the the Open Meetings Act is the fact that the governing bodies are "not" required to release any closed session minutes. Officials are required only to review past meeting minutes periodically and then decide whether to release the minutes to the public or not. Would you like to guess what they decide to do more often than not? So, we will likely never know how some of our favorite elected officials express themselves when the discussion gets hot and nasty. During the Baker years the mayor and aldermen would boast fairly often about how they "Never had to" go into closed session. They never even realized how ridiculous that boast made them look. It's true that they never used closed session that I am aware of. It's also absolute, ironclad, without question, 100% proof that there was only "ONE" decision maker in that administration. There were no closed sessions because there was no interest in any other viewpoints on the critical matters that require closed sessions. That's not the way democracy is supposed to work.

Peru storm sewer seperation project on hold after contractor pulls out « AM1220 WLPO News

Peru storm sewer seperation project on hold after contractor pulls out « AM1220 WLPO News

Seems to be a news story but not sure if the city might have more information than they are releasing. Why would a company that is being paid by the state as the money came from Springfield decide to leave the city in a lurch with a half finished project?

Youth Who Smoked Potpourri Product: ‘I Thought I Was Going To Die’

Youth Who Smoked Potpourri Product: ‘I Thought I Was Going To Die’

And we thought "bath salts" were gone and everything was OK in Illinois. Not so, please read this changing scenerio and its dangers that still exist. I hope our Police Department is checking Smoke Shops and other known convenient stores and/or gas stations where this might be sold.

Honesty in Government

What initially seemed to be a ho hum story regarding the pool chemicals disappearance seems to have affected many residents. Not only how dangerous were the disappearing chemicals because we were never told what types were taken and in what quantity. Speaking of swimming pools, the first thing that comes to mind is chlorine. Do you as a resident have a right to know this even though the aldermen and police dept. did not seem to be concerned about any of this. Brian Foster has posted several interesting links on chlorine you might like to view. The truth and accuracy of all previously made statements have been called into question and lets hope this will encourage them to set the story right.

Vickrey running for circuit clerk - MyWebTimes.com

Vickrey running for circuit clerk - MyWebTimes.com

Excavation cave-in results in "Near miss" incident

Tragedy was narrowly averted during a water main repair by Peru city employees Tuesday morning. One worker was partially engulfed when the excavation he was working in collapsed around him trapping him in the bottom of the excavation. Two other workers entered the excavation in order to free their trapped co-worker. My understanding is the employee who was working inside the excavation was not seriously injured but was quite shaken by the experience.

The excavation in question was more than four feet deep(which requires shoring by OSHA regulation) but did not have "shoring" equipment in place at the time of the cave-in. Ironically, the employee in question has been very vocal for a very long time in requesting that proper shoring equipment be purchased by the city. Even more ironic is the fact that less than 24 hours before this "near miss" took place, the Peru city council finally approved purchase of OSHA approved shoring equipment, also known as a Trench Box. There is no question that city officials were negligent by failing to provide the proper equipment and training to its employees and failing to enforce the proper procedures for working in and around excavations. Some time ago, I asked Gary Bleck why the city did not have the proper shoring equipment. Gary informed me that he had been pricing new equipment for purchase and that employees were told to "borrow" shoring from local contractors when necessary. I asked who or what was causing the delay in purchasing the equipment. Mr. Bleck said he could not tell me who or what was holding up the purchase. I believe there were aldermen who were totally indifferent to the critical importance of purchasing this equipment and that is unacceptable to me. It is clear that we have some city officials, elected and otherwise, who have very little practical sense of how to provide oversite to a public works department, let alone an entire city. To say that the city of Peru "dodged a bullet" in this situation is a monumental understatement. We are so fortunate that nobody was seriously injured or killed. When you consider the fact that after this excavation began to fail there were no less than "three" workers in a life threatening situation. I had recently advised a water department employee they should refuse to enter any deep excavations until the city purchased a ditch box. The employee expressed to me the fear of repurcussions to he and others if they refused to repair main breaks. City of Peru employees have been risking life and limb for a long time repairing these ever-occuring water line breaks and they deserve better than this from city officials. This will be another example of "re-active" leadership.

Calhoun & 7th Streets

Danger Spot Cavein Peru at Rock & Seventh

LOCATED AT THE CORNER OF 7TH AND ROCK IN PERU. We told the SPW...nothing Told Ald. Perez and he added a construction cone which was stolen as Ald. Mayszak watched from her home but could not follow them quick enough to find out who did it. So be careful when traveling westbound, it is quite a bump and may be for some time. It had a previous repair as you can see but problem evidently was not solved.

Ottawa City Hall the scene of a hold-up Monday « AM1220 WLPO News

Ottawa City Hall the scene of a hold-up Monday « AM1220 WLPO News

News Tribune - News - Local - Baker Lake might host Peru fireworks in two years

News Tribune - News - Local - Baker Lake might host Peru fireworks in two years

What else would you like to see along with the fireworks? Would it be fun to extend the celebration to 2 or maybe 3 days at different locations in town?

Peru aldermanic ward boundaries will be re-configured

The concept of "One voter / One vote" was lost on at least a couple of aldermen at last nights council meeting. Several aldermen were reluctant to accept the fact that federal law and Illinois state statute says that re-districting must ensure equal representation to all residents and that boundaries be arranged to limit population variation to no more than 10% between voting districts. Currently the wards in Peru are heavily unbalanced by at least 30% in some cases. In anticipation of the changes that will need to be made, Clerk Bartley has contacted a consultant who is currently working with LaSalle County on the county wide re-districting effort. Bartley explained to the council the importance of proper planning on this issue. Cost to the city for consulting services would be from $7,000 to $14,000. Several aldermen were unimpressed with the idea of hiring a consultant for these services and at least two aldermen needed to be reminded by the city attorney that the re-districting is not something they should just ignore. Aldermen Ferrari and Ankiewicz could not quite grasp the whole concept. On the other hand, Aldermen Radtke and Lukosus were quick to recognize the importance of the situation by citing what provides the foundation for our democracy, "One voter / One vote". Alderman Lukosus also pointed out the likelihood of civil lawsuits if the city chooses not to comply with re-districting. I have witnessed on more than a few occasions in recent years some of the "more senior" members on the council tend to resist any situation they will not have the ability to manipulate or control. They take great offense to being instructed by the state, let alone the federal government on how to proceed on an issue. The re-shaping of Peru's ward structure should not become another polarizing political issue. Hire the consultant so that he process will be done fairly and accurately. The council should not drag their feet on this matter as they typically tend to do when they are given a mandate. Hire the consultant and get out of the way. The less input(interference) form elected officials, the better.

Veterans Park Peru's Newest Neglected and Pool Equipment

Fir trees that were donated to the city for Veterans Park north of the Peru City Cemetery. They were planted and not taken care of until this year it was brought up by residents how bad they looked. Just recently a mulch was put around the base of all of them but it looks like neglect has taken its toll and some are surely going to die completely. Do you know who the generous donor was? You don't buy trees of this size for $2.00. What a waste!

While in the area take a look at the Peru City Cemetery. I can't say I have ever seen it so neglected.

CC Minutes June 1 re: Proposed Tax

This was taken from the City Council minutes from June 1 and at that meeting several of the council members expressed their opinion on the tax.

Dyersburg State Gazette: Local News: Drug sting hits stores selling bath salts (07/22/11)

Dyersburg State Gazette: Local News: Drug sting hits stores selling bath salts (07/22/11)

This is from Tennessee but an excellent article. Illinois recently signed a law against the sale of "bath salts" but it will most likely still be brought into the area from states that have not declared it to be illegal. Video is good and so is the article. Some of the southern states have been fighting this longer that our city and enacted laws sooner.